Expert: Kate Tilmouth - 9/10/2010

Question
My cat has fleas again, even after I removed them the first time via a bath with dawn soap.  She is a strictly house cat and shes very curious and takes every opportunity to run out the door.  Which is how I think she has fleas.  I know theres a controversy between never to bathe and being ok to bathe a cat.  But I dont have the money to buy Advantage and stuff like that right now.  At first I never noticed she had fleas until I associated her scratching with the bites on my feet/ankles which I believed were mosquitoe bites.  I and another sibling gave her a bath today.  It was a nightmare.  She tore up the kitchen rubber gloves off my hands, my siblings shirt, drew blood from his back and close to drawing blood on my arm.  This was even AFTER her nails were trimmed the day before.  We gave her a bath before when she was a kitten to deflea her and it was not so bad.  Now its like bathing a lion.  Let me know if you have any suggestions.

Answer
Hi
unfortunately getting rid of fleas is a timely and a little bit costly. they are quite tricky to get rid of as they can lie dormant for some time if not killed off. Both your cat and your home also have to be treated at the same time, other wise they will keep reinfecting each other.

There really is no mega cheap option. the spot on treatments are the best top keep your cat flea free. i use frontline and I buy it online which i don't find that expensive. there are flea powders which you should be able to get from your local supermarket/ pet shop to treat your home. they are around £2 to £12 depending on what you buy.

i recently had to go through this myself and it can take a week or so of treating the home and vacuuming to get to rid of the problem.

a you know fleas can make cats very ill indeed if not treated so it does have to be done.

i have loads of information about fleas and how to treat them on my site. here is the first page

http://www.our-happy-cat.com/cat-fleas.html

best wishes Kate
http://www.our-happy-cat.com